THE EXPRESSIONS OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS’ LOVE IN THOMAS HARDY’S NOVEL THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE (Psychological Approach) (PBING-1)

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The
study is in the area of psychology analysis. Davidoff (1976: 2)
explains that psychology is the science of behavior. While behavior
itself is any human or animal process or activity that can be
objectively observed or measured. The definition of behavior includes
thoughts, feelings, dreams, and anything a person does or experiences.

On
the area of psychology, psychologists have observed some phenomena such
as thoughts, sensations, emotions, needs, motives, personality
characteristics, and capabilities that cannot be observed or measured
directly. These phenomena are called hypothetical constructs (Davidoff
1976: 2)

Psychology
happens in human mind, which will give the impact on people’s
activities everyday. We can learn the psychological study not only in
the character of human in real life but also in such literary works,
like novel, short story, poem, etc. According to William Henry as cited
by Hardjana (1991: 59), psychology enters the area of literary
criticism through four ways: (1) discussion about the process of
literary creation, (2) psychological analysis of the author (either as a
type or as a person), (3) discussion about psychological theories
applicable to the analysis of the character’s behavior in literary
works, (4) the influence of literary works on the readers.

Rees
(1973: 20) states that literature is a writing which expresses and
communicates thoughts or ideas, feeling or emotions, and attitude
towards life. It means that through literature, we know other people’s
feelings, thoughts, and attitude’s in the written form of language.

Kiel
(1974: 9) states that fiction, as a part of literature, can be pointed
as a fruitful field for exploration in the study of human personality.
In psychology insight, the writers usually know many things between
heaven and earth that the academic wisdom does not dream about. Great
writers know how to give a unified picture of a whole personality
trough minute observation of meaningful expression, a
characteristic mannerism, or unconscious habit. It can be said that
there is an intimate relationship between psychology and literature.
Psychology helps to clarify some literary problems and literature
presents insight to psychology. According to Henry L in his book
entitled Psychology (1984:423), there are two classification of emotion
as follows:

(1) Positive emotions (i.e. joy, love, and sexual excitement) (2) Negative emotions (i.e. anger, fear, sadness, and grief)From
the categories above, the writer will focus only on the
positive emotion that is love. Love is the most complex and important
thing from all human emotions (Tressider, 1997: 1). Love is a prominence
and virtue based on the human life. The supreme value of human virtue
is out poured from their regard to the life itself. In this case,
the reality of a certain person or individual development always
has direct relation to the attention and relation of conscious
inter-subject. It can be described that life flows from and within love.

Along
the history, for the sake of love, people are willing to ignore their
importance; they even sacrificing their life to show the expressions of
their love to others. If we love someone or our homeland for example, we
will do anything for them. The Return of the Native is one of many
novels that tells about it. The sacrifice and love are still found all
over the countries in the world, including in our country, and is still
relevant to be analyzed at the present life. Therefore, I interested in
the novel that reveals these human values that is love and sacrifice.